Foster Animals

Open your house to a pet who needs a home

When your community has dogs or cats that need your love and care (because they are very young, sick, or the shelter has limited space), you can provide a temporary home.

Possible recipients

The grateful inhabitants of your local animal shelter.

What you’ll need

A love of animals.

The time and commitment to help the animal you foster. Typically, your family’s main responsibility will be to handle and cuddle the animals frequently so they can become well-socialized pets for the families that eventually adopt them.

Instructions

Ask which supplies and services (food, vet care, etc.) the shelter provides and which you will need to contribute.

Prepare yourselves and your home for the new addition.

Always supervise interactions between foster animals and young children.

Reflections

Do you have other pets? How do you think they might feel if we were unable to care for them?

Why is it important to help living things other than people?

What are other ways we can show animals we love them?

Resources

Featured Book for June 2015 Big-Hearted Families™ book club subscribers!

The Little Blue Dog by Karen Roberts. Ages 4-8. This was our Big-Hearted Families™ Book Club selection for June 2015! You're family will love this sweet story of life from the perspective of a shelter dog is sure to spark big conversations about love, home, and belonging, necessary comforts for people and pets alike.

Before You Were Mine by Maribeth Boelts. Ages 4-8. A young boy thinks about the life of his dog before he adopted him from an animal shelter.

The Shelter Dog by Christine Davis. Ages 4-8. Hero, an angel dog, decides he wants to go back to earth to be a shelter dog so a loving family can choose him as their pet. Slowly he realizes that living in a shelter isn’t as nice as it appears.